How to help / Cómo ayudar

This page is currently under revision, so please bear with the disorganization until all information is added and updated.

Thanks so much for wanting to help! This page provides information on how to help children and adults from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in the U.S. To help them in their countries of origin, consult the website link for each nation.

I encourage you to contact your government officials to express concern that these children deserve our protection. If in conversation with others who do not understand this, share with them the story that has touched you and possibly organize events in your community to share why children leave. I highly recommend reading Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario and watching films like El Norte, Sin Nombre and Which Way Home. Philip Spassov put together a list of 168 immigration-related movies and documentaries, including links. See http://discuss.ilw.com/content.php?3877-Article-Immigration-Movies-and-Documentaries-By-Philip-Spassov. This is an important moment in which we must decide if we will be a nation of compassion or a nation of hate, and those of us who feel compassion must help those who do not yet feel it to wake up.

For concrete organizations to support and others actions to take, Pullitzer Prize-winning journalist Sonia Nazario, who has reported on child migrants for over 15 years, makes these suggestions:

Write a letter to a lawmaker in support of giving these children a full, fair, and timely immigration hearing, as required under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008. Ask Congress to increase the number of refugees the U.S. allows to pre 9/11 levels, which were nearly twice current levels, to allow more children fleeing harm to have a safe harbor in the U.S.

Unaccompanied child migrants who are determined not to have parents or legal guardians enter the U.S. foster system. Thus, you should contact your state agency responsible for foster care and ask them about the possibility of adopting a child migrant.

Here is a video in Spanish about the route children take to reach the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCKZbqt5XeE&feature=youtu.be. Here is a shorter version with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YML9_esOfo0.